08/05/2026
Agassiz Hall and Bartlett's Art School, part of the Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute campus on the Highlands of Oak Bluffs.
The MVSI offered summer courses for teachers for almost thirty years during the late 1800s and early 1900s. More than seven hundred teachers from nearly every state in the country descended upon Cottage City for five weeks every July and August, where for $15 plus board they chose from a wide assortment of classes including botany, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, “phonography”, zoology, microscopy, entomology, Latin, Greek, French, German, art, bookkeeping, writing, elocution, and education courses for teachers of arithmetic, music, penmanship, geography and history, taught by more than forty instructors.
Founded by Col. Homer B. Sprague, the institute combined “advanced scientific and literary studies” with “rest and relaxation.” The small campus also included dormitories and a dining hall.
